[Reader-list] Brazil spurns US terms for AIDS help

[Vivek Narayanan]

Brazil spurns US terms for Aids help

Sarah Boseley and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Wednesday May 4, 2005
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/brazil/story/0,12462,1475966,00.html

Brazil yesterday became the first country to take a public stand against 
the Bush administration's massive Aids programme which is seen by many as 
seeking increasingly to press its anti-abortion, pro-abstinence sexual 
agenda on poorer countries.

Campaigners applauded Brazil's rejection of $40m for its Aids programmes 
because it refuses to agree to a declaration condemning prostitution.

The government and many Aids organisations believe such a declaration would 
be a serious barrier to helping sex workers protect themselves and their 
clients from infection.

Article continues The demand from the US administration, heavily influenced 
by the religious right, follows what is known as the "global gag" - a ban 
on US government funds to any foreign-based organisation which has links to 
abortion. This has resulted in the removal of millions of dollars of 
funding from family planning clinics worldwide.

Yesterday Pedro Chequer, the director of Brazil's HIV/Aids programme, said 
the government had managed to resist US pressure during negotiations on the 
Aids funding to focus on promoting abstinence and fidelity rather than 
condoms - another ideological battle being waged by the religious right. 
But the US negotiators insisted that the clause on prostitution had to stay.

"I would like to confirm that Brazil has taken this decision in order to 
preserve its autonomy on issues related to national policies on HIV/Aids as 
well as ethical and human rights principles," he told the Guardian.

Campaigners congratulated the Brazilian government for its stance, and 
voiced concerns that the declaration on prostitution could damage efforts 
to tackle Aids among sex workers in many countries.

Jodi Jacobson of the Centre for Health and Gender Equity in the US said 
that, unlike the global gag, the declaration on prostitution looked likely 
to be imposed on US-based organisations as well as their subsidiaries 
abroad. The office of Randall Tobias, the global Aids coordinator who is 
responsi ble for spending the $15bn President Bush promised for the fight 
against Aids, was working on the language to be adopted, she said.

"Any organisation receiving US global Aids funding will have to agree to 
the policy," she said. That would include charities as large as Care, Save 
the Children and World Vision.

"It is a hugely problematic policy from the standpoint of public health 
alone. It goes against the entire grain of public health principles in not 
judging the people you are trying to reach."

But Sam Brownback, a leading Senate conservative, told the Wall Street 
Journal: "Obviously Brazil has the right to act however it chooses in this 
regard. We're talking about promotion of prostitution which the majority of 
both the house and the Senate believe is harmful to women."

Most US Aids funding goes directly to organisations working in the field 
and much will be channelled through faith organisations that back the 
no-abortion, pro-abstinence and anti-prostitution stance of the US 
neo-conservatives.

But the Brazilian government has strong HIV/Aids policies and insists that 
all negotiations go through its own committee. It also has a strong 
partnership between government and non-governmental organisations that 
encouraged a united response to Washington.

"This would be entirely in contradiction with Brazilian guidelines for a 
programme that has been working very well for years. We are providing 
condoms, and doing a lot of prevention work with sex workers, and the rate 
of infection has stabilised and dropped since the 1980s," said Sonia 
Correa, an Aids activist in Brazil and co-chair of the International 
Working Group on Sexuality and Social Policy.

"The US is doing the same in other countries - bullying, pushing and 
forcing - but not every country has the possibility to say no."

Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition, 
said: "The importance of the Brazilian government decision can not be 
overstated."